Thursday, October 14, 2010

Syllabus: Youth and Malice

A while back my friend Farrah was doing these posts I loved with syllabi for imaginary classes. (Here's one on cuteness. Here's one on acknowledging the camera.) I'd like to see a class on books and films that feature children or teenagers encountering (and in engaging in) acts of cruelty, violence, and evil, with a particular focus on children; teenagers are evil anyway. (Slasher films don't count.)

Boy A. The book (by Jonathan Trigell) and or film. It's inspired by some serious cruelty (the story of James Bulger, http://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/03/world/for-tiny-british-suspects-fidgets-and-tears.html). Andrew Garfield is amazing in the movie.

Ah, Heathers is an interesting case. I wanted to veer away from violence played for laughs or scare value, but since it's a black comedy that satirizes realistic high school cruelty, I think it qualifies ....

The movie If -- British film, made in 1968, directed by Lindsay Anderson, with Malcolm McDowell in the top-billed role. I've never actually seen this one, I know of it only by reputation and from a couple of reviews I've seen -- it's one of those "what kind of chaos would ensue if teenagers actually took over," etc., films of which there were a few during those years. It was made a few years before Malcolm McDowell blew away the movie screen in A Clockwork Orange.

Key Witness, from 1960, a teenage gang terrorizes a man and his family after the man's court testimony leads to a conviction of the gang leader for something or other. The gang leader is played by Dennis Hopper, in early classic form. The upright citizen father is played by Jeffrey Hunter, otherwise known for playing Captain Pike in "The Cage," the original two-part pilot episode of Star Trek, and for playing Jesus of Nazareth in the movie King of Kings. This is probably the definitive example of the teenage switchblade gang movies of those years.

The Children's Hour, the 1961 film made from Lillian Hellman's play, with Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine. The cruel-children aspect of this one is only one element of the plot, but a pivotal one.

Equus, a 1977 British film in which a psychiatrist investigates a terrible act of cruelty done by a teenage boy to several horses. Richard Burton plays the psychiatrist. Adapted by Peter Shaffer from his play of the same name.

And, you didn't mention T.V. shows specifically, but an obvious choice would be the classic Twilight Zone episode in which a boy with terrible superhuman powers terrorizes the people of the small town where he lives, including turning a man into a jack-in-the-box.

All four of these books were made into films: The Bad Seed is neither better or worse as a film; The Midwich Cuckoos was made as Village of the Damned and remade by the same name--the original film is good, the remake is supposedly terrible; I haven't seen The Other; and The Little Girl Who Lived Down the Lane is a film I love, and for my money, better than the book.

The Other has nothing to do with The Others. The Others is more a riff on Henry Miller's The Turn of the Screw, which, come to think of it, isn't a bad example of what you're looking for. No, The Other is about a boy who does some bad things, and was a big bestseller in the 70s.

I don't think you're looking for out and out supernatural stuff, but there is The Omen (mediocre, but the child is effective) and Children of the Corn (dreadful, in all it's incarnations, yet somehow powerful). You already have one King story on your list (Stand By Me), but he has a few with bad kids... Sometimes They Come Back--essentially about bullying--and Pet Sematary.

So many bad children!

I also thot about "Teddy" by Salinger in 9 Stories, but I can't remember if Teddy is bad or not... and unwilling to reread the story to find out!

I think Teddy uses his powers for good! Unlike the boy in that aforementioned Twilight Zone episode (which is updated in the TZ movie they made in the '80s, along with the William Shatner episode about the creature on the plane wing....)

I think I'm only shying away from horror/slasher films if they don't focus particularly on the intersection of youth and malice, but are just about people getting killed in general (even if those people happen to be young).

The fifth child! -LessingLord of the Flies (if you must) Babel Tower (AS Byatt) has some interesting child cruelty, although its not the main focus.I feel like I am missing a good twin/bad twin book... Acch!

The Life Before Her Eyes (2007) - Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood (centers on the 15th anniversary of a tragic school shooting). I'm thinking more of Uma Thurman's "child" in the movie than of the shooter himself.